November was dominated by our National Conference in Melbourne including the pre-conference Ivey and Ivey workshop and the Counselling and Psychotherapy Association of Commonwealth Nations meeting. The National Conference was a resounding success with over 220 people attending from all over the world with delegates from Austria, Canada, Fiji, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, USA, UK, Qatar, Hong Kong and Singapore to name a few. Most importantly the conference came in with a healthy surplus.

The conference was opened by the Honourable Mary Wooldridge, Minister for Mental Health (Victoria) who also conducted a Q & A with the audience. The Minister was followed by a very dynamic key note presentation with Allen and Mary Ivey. The conference workshops were diverse with many delegates struggling to prioritise between the broad choices. Fortunately many of the workshops were videotaped so delegates will be able to enjoy watching missed workshops at a later date.

A major pre-conference activity on Friday the 11th was a meeting of the steering committee for the Counselling and Psychotherapy Association of Commonwealth Nations. I was honoured to have been elected Chair of this new steering committee to establish an association of counselling and psychotherapy associations from the Commonwealth of Nations. The meeting was attended by delegates from UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong. Lorna Martin the President of the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association was elected as Secretary. I will keep members informed of the steering committees activities through the Ezine.

On Monday 14th of November the inaugural ACA AGM was held. This was an historic meeting as it was the first under the new restructure of ACA Inc. The AGM went smoothly with all motions being passed unanimously. After the AGM a presentation was given outlining future strategies. Those who attended were given a look at the new ACA website which goes live in January 2012. One exciting new addition to the web site is every member will be able to have their own web page which comes with a personalised address (URL) so there is no need, unless you want to, to build and pay for your own separate website.

This comes as a member service and will not attract any extra fees. Member’s listings on the ACA register webpage and “Find a Counsellor” facility will have a link that goes to your new web page, as will your ARCAP listing. You will also be able to make changes to your personal information and include a bio and other marketing material directly on your page without the need to go through ACA. Certain information like your level of membership will only be editable by ACA. Further information on this will be available in mid - January when the ACA office opens after the holiday season.

A new ACA public website called “Mind Your Head” was also demonstrated. This new website is designed to inform and educate the public on mental health issues such as depression, what is counselling, how it works and how to seek out counselling services. Further information will be released about this website and how it will advantage ACA members in 2012.

Have a wonderful holiday season and Merry Christmas to all those who celebrate this occasion and safe travels to all our members and supporters till next year.

Please note the ACA Office will be closed from 11am on Friday 16th of December 2011 and will reopen on Monday at 9am (ESDST) on 9th of January 2012.

Till next time,

Philip Armstrong

Chief Executive Officer

Announcements

Closing – Bachelor of Counselling Intake (Semester 1, 2012)

Next year’s places into AIPC’s Bachelor of Counselling are filling very quickly. There are now only a few places remaining.

If you want to undertake a Bachelor of Counselling in 2012 you should act now.

AIPC’s unique learning model means you can earn-while-you-learn, so you don’t have to holt work to fit in your studies.

-Study externally from anywhere in Australia, even overseas.

-Fund your tuition with Fee-Help.

-Save up to $11,300 on your qualification.

-Can start with just 1 subject.

-Online learning portal with access to all study materials, readings and video lectures.

-Attend residential schools to integrate your learning.

You can submit your obligation free expressionof interest (or enrol) in the Bachelor of Counselling here:

AIPC expects to hit capacity enrolments for Semester 1, 2012 very soon. So if you’re thinking about enrolling in their Bachelor, please submit your interest now to avoid missing out.

ACA 3 Day Build a Successful Practice Boot Camp

Spend three whole days working on developing “your” Practice using the latest theories and practical strategies in business development. So as participants can get the most from this Boot Camp workshop size will be limited.

Bris - 22nd to 24th of February

Syd - 14th to 16th of March

Melb - 21st to 23rd of March

Daily start time 9am - finish time 4pm.

Day 1: The basics are important, now let’s make a plan:

Foundations to Build a Practice to last the first 3 years

The Competition, who, where and what to look for

Why rebates are not necessary, plan to succeed

Your limitations are self-imposed, stretch your wings.

Day 2: No-one ever succeeded by waiting, so let’s lead the pack:

Principles of marketing a non tangible service

How to identify new markets

Niche markets, tomorrows market for allied health providers

Marketing fallacies, what’s true and what’s not.

Day 3: Spreading the word, let’s get it out there:

Rules for designing marketing material

What works? Print copy, web, yellow pages…

Let’s get dirty and make some brochures

Putting it all together

Venue - TBA

Your investment per person GST incl:

Normally $3,550.00

For non ACA members $2,750.00

For ACA members $2,250.00

Save over $1575.00 off the normal price by being in the first 10 fully paid up

Registrants (per city) at the special early bird price $1975.00 plus receive a free copy of “The Practice of Clinical Supervision” worth $49.95 for confirmed bookings NLT 10th of January 2011.

Workshops include lunch, morning and afternoon tea as well as stationary

Electronic booklet of the Boot Camp PowerPoint presentation on completion

The relationship between Motivation for becoming a Psychotherapist and Empathy

Increase your self-awareness by becoming aware of your personal motivation for wanting to enter this helping profession, and ways in which this may affect how you relate to clients.

Help elucidate the overlooked need for systematic empirical research into the effect of personal factors in the human sciences: beneficial for improving the quality of psychotherapy as well as counsellor training and supervision.

Participation involves completion of an online survey which should take approximately 25 minutes. Questions address relationship, personality, family of origin, and motivational factors. All responses are completely anonymous and no personal information will be collected.

For more information, please contact Kim Gillbee on (03) 9902 4878 or Kim.Gillbee@monash.edu or click the link below to take the survey:

Mental Health text Working Together: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Mental Health and Wellbeing Principles and Practice is currently available. Working Together has proven to be extremely popular with GP’s, universities, psychologists, social workers, mental health workers, nurses, counsellors, drug and alcohol services, as well as educators and students in all these areas. We believe Social and Emotional Wellbeing programs could greatly benefit from this text.

I have noticed an increase in websites now offering “Counsellors” in private practice web pages that they claim will increase business to your service for a price. These commercial operations are simply about making money off your back, as they do not increase your profile over and above consumers going to their sites looking for counsellors.

So, in essence, they are already competing with your business website, if you have one, for a priority listing, so why would you want to add to the coffers of your competitors? They do not actively advertise “your” service; they advertise “their” website.The problem with this strategy is that they work from the theory of “casting the net as wide as possible”. In other words, anyone who pays and is a member of an association can receive a web page from them, whether they be a psychologist, social worker etc. “Fair enough”, you say. “At least they have standards”.

Well, it’s not that simple once you get past the marketing rhetoric. If you want to get the best bang for your buck, you need to be more vigilant in how you spend it. Is simply getting what seems to be a good web page on a site that seems to look good a win-win situation? Well, if it were a level playing field, then possibly yes, but let’s look at how the casting-a-wide-net philosophy actually works against you and creates an uneven playing field.

A counselling site that claims to help you to get more business makes this claim to all its members and these members, because they cast a wide net, come from many disciplines. How does that impact on you as a service provider? Well, let’s look at what happens when a consumer conducts a search for a Counsellor in Brisbane. For argument’s sake, two services show up, one a “Psychologist” (even though the site calls itself a counselling site) and the second a Counsellor. The psychologist in Brisbane has a big spiel about how cost-effective their service is because they have access to rebates. This acts as leverage to draw consumers to their service. On the same search, you, a “Counsellor”, come up. You (not the website owner, whom you are paying) now have to find a way of levelling the playing field in your spiel, a very difficult task if you have little or no training in marketing, a subject not covered in most counsellor training courses.

The kicker is you are paying for the privilege of needing to try and find ways to counter other service providers’ natural advantages, service providers who are paying the same amount of money as you to appear on the same site as you and who come up on the same search result as you. If the site only advertised “Counsellors” then it would be a level playing field, however, from a commercial perspective, casting the net as wide as possible makes for more money but could be counterproductive to you as a counsellor and private service provider. Paying to put yourself in this situation may not be smart and certainly would not be considered getting the best bang for your buck.

The only advantage you may get from these essentially fancy-looking search engines is that, through numbers, they can afford to pay for a higher priority than you can for your site on other search engines such as Google. And this is not necessarily an advantage when you are thrown in the same pot as everyone else. Although an efficient use of services such as Google’s Ad Words can overcome this disadvantage at little cost in any case.

Having said all that, ACA members do not need to concern themselves with this issue, since all ACA members receive a free web page as a member benefit in any case. And to boot, the ACA website already has top billing in Google and Bing, type in ‘counselling’ to see if I am right.And don’t forget that all ACA members’ web pages automatically feature on the “search for a counsellor” facility on our new public portal, “Mind Your Head”, which goes live in 2012, so you get twice the profile just for being a member. You get heaps more bang for your membership dollar with no added costs for further benefits. So I suppose that, in a nutshell, what I am saying is save your money for OPD or Supervision if you are an ACA member, because we will put you on an already established top-priority search engine and all for no extra charge.

ACA Recognised OPD Events

Young Minds 2012

Type of Activity: Conferences

Objective/Outline: The inaugural Young Minds conference will be held 21 – 22 June 2012 at the Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre. A summit of leading minds from Australia and internationally, it will address the urgent issues facing our youth. This purpose designed event will focus on developing the hearts and minds of young people. Young Minds comes to you from the producers of the highly acclaimed Happiness & Its Causes and Mind & Its Potential conferences which have attracted 16,000+ delegates over the past seven years, and Young Minds will be no different.

Join the brightest minds in philosophy, psychology, science, religion and the arts from overseas and locally. Featuring a faculty of 40+ international and local speakers and 500+ delegates, this extraordinary event will have high visibility amongst key professional groups and, via the media, the broader public. This event has been purpose designed to explore the unique set of challenges young people are facing today and includes personal stories to move, inspire and entertain! It's a vibrant conference experience with interactive panel discussions and in-depth workshops.

Personal stories forums are a unique feature of Young Minds where speakers tell their stories of dealing with challenges such as living with depression or other mental illness, dealing with the challenges of adolescence and finding resilience in the face of personal tragedy as well as sharing triumphs and successes in business, the arts and more. Practical workshop sessions enhance the delegates’ learning experience. A full day pre-conference workshop and a choice of 8 half day post-conference workshops provide delegates with the opportunity to delve into specialist topics.

Objective: The purpose of this course is to give you the skills and knowledge to recognize and work with the underlying systemic dynamics of relationships and family systems in support of healthy relationships. You will gain knowledge, skills and experience in dealing with Family of origin and present family or relationships issues, in both workshop or seminars and also private sessions. This consists of highly experiential learning, course notes and reading. This is a solution focused, experiential modality that involves brief intervention that may stand alone, or be incorporated in longer traditional therapies.

Outline:The course is composed of theoretical and extensive experiential learning. Professional development in; Working phenomenologically. Ethical considerations for clients, client’s family, participants in the group and the facilitator. Duty of care for the client. Working with groups. Private individual sessions. Working with organizations and human systems. Recognizing the wide range of family dynamics that individuals are born into. Hetero-sexual, gay and lesbian, blended families, one parent families, adoption, fostering, sexual abuse, victim and perpetrator energy.

The effects of a healthy strong or entangled mother on the system. The effects of a healthy strong or entangled father on the system. The effects of war, migration, miscarriage, abortions, bankruptcy, tragic early deaths of children. Family dynamics, parenting, couples. The effects of: Order. Loyalty. Blind Love. Conscience. Guilt and shame. How dynamics are passed down generations. Entanglements. Healing sentences.

Helping clients find their best place or best solutions so they can stand stronger as individuals with respect for themselves and their system. Personal development in; Having the opportunity to do your own family constellation and your own present family or situation, to reveal your own family dynamics and entanglements in order to be more present and conscious as a facilitator and in your own personal life and hence your work with clients

Objective: The aim of the 1 day TRE workshop is for counsellors to experience and learn this self empowering stress, tension and trauma release process for their own personal stress management as well as completing day 1 of the 3 day training required towards certification to teach TRE professionally. Attendees will begin journaling their personal experience of TRE as a requirement of level 1 professional certification to teach TRE to individuals following this workshop.

Objective: The aim of the 3 day level 2 TRE workshop is for counsellors to develop and further their skills, knowledge and understand to lead individuals more deeply and skilfully through the Trauma Release Exercises Process as well as working with dissociative clients and teaching TRE to groups. There are additional supervision, reading and journaling requirements for Level 2 professional certification as well as learning to deepen their experience and understanding of their own use of the TRE process for personal stress, tension and trauma management. There are also pre-requisites to attending level 2 workshops - see www.trauma-release-exercises for more information.

Workshops and 10 Day Play Therapy Intensive Course - A Pathway to Becoming a Registered Play Therapist with the Australian Play Therapists Association (APTA)

Play Therapy Australia is the leading Child Centered Play Therapy training organisation in Australia and is offering an intensive part time post graduate level Play Therapy Clinical Training Program in 2012. Course participants will have the opportunity to immerse in Child Centered Play Therapy, a humanistic, non directive form of counselling and psychotherapy for children from 2-10 years old and to become specialists in this field.

Play Therapy Australia has a number of the Australian and American leaders and experts in the field of Child Centered Play Therapy involved in training presentations and also as clinical supervisors for the Play Therapy Practicum, providing a deeply enriching and highly professional Play Therapy training experience.

The Play Therapy Clinical Training Program consists of 150 hours of Play Therapy training and is offered in intensive block modules in 2012 to enable those living in different parts of Australia and other countries to participate in the training program being held in Perth, Western Australia. Other course requirements including distance learning components are completed from the course participant’s place of living.

For Commonly Asked Questions and Answers, the Application Form and further information about Play Therapy, please visit the Play Therapy Australia website: www.playtherapyaustralia.com.

Cancer Council Scholarships:

Cancer Council WA is very generously awarding 2 scholarships of $5000 to mental health practitioners in Western Australia to complete the Play Therapy Clinical Training Program. Full details are available to download on the Play Therapy Australia website and Cancer Council WA website www.cancerwa.asn.au

Play Therapy Workshop and Play Therapy 10 Day Intensive Course

The Heart and Practice of Child Centered Play Therapy workshop will be offered in Perth, Western Australia from 14-17 March 2012 and is the first part of the Play Therapy Australia Clinical Training Program and the Play Therapy 10 Day Intensive Course: Heartful Practice in Working Therapeutically with Children. Full details are available on the Play Therapy Australia website!

For Further Information about Play Therapy Training with Play Therapy Australia: Please visit the website and email info@playtherapyaustralia.com or phone 0430 040 020 with any questions you have.

Objective: For professional counsellors, the field of Neuro Linguistic Programming adds skills for interpersonal communication, rapport, therapeutic change, coaching methodologies and tools for building resources with a client. The objective of the Level 1 NLP Practitioner Certification course is to build conscious competencies of the basic skills of NLP to use in a therapeutic session.

Outline: The NLP Level 1 course is delivered over an 8-day format, 9am to 6pm. Each day, 2 to 3 topics are covered through lecture, demonstration and experiential learning. Taught in a generative manner, each aspect of learning is built on previous learnings providing a well-rounded learning experience.

Objective: Trance Camp is an experiential workshop for counsellors and therapists using Generative Trance. The objective of Trance Camp Week 1 is to develop transformational states of consciousness. In Week 1 participants will learn: Techniques for developing generative trance; How to make transformational changes while in generative trance; How to establish a deep connection with the creative unconscious; To identify and transform limiting beliefs and resistances; To transform 'negative trances' (such as anxiety, depression, self-criticism) into positive resources; To use generative trance to create experiences and outcomes you never imagined or believed possible; The Ericksonian attitude of approaching each day and challenge as a great opportunity for new learning.

Outline: The Experience of Trance Camp has many dimensions. The course usually runs from 9 - 6 pm each day. Each day is filled with Dr. Gilligan's talks, group trances, Dr. Gilligan's work with volunteer clients, generative trance exercises with partners, and group discussions. The trances start out simple and short, and progressively deepen and extend into core pieces of transformational work. A group of experienced assistants is there to help as needed, and we all work to ensure that the group space is safe, intimate, and lots of fun.

Objective: Trance Camp is an experiential workshop for counsellors and therapists using Generative Trance. The objective of Trance Camp Week 1 is to develop transformational states of consciousness. The second week of Trance Camp explores the many possibilities of working within trance for generative change.

Week 2 includes: How 'reality' and 'identity' are 'trance states' created, maintained, and transformed via trance phenomena; How to use trance phenomena to create a Generative Self of higher consciousness capable of going beyond previous limits, obstacles, beliefs and negative events; How to transform an experience by shifting the submodalities of natural trance phenomena; Generative trance as a quantum field that opens possibilities beyond ordinary limits; What to do once generative trance has been established; Integrating the conscious and unconscious minds into a 'Generative Self'; How the Generative Self can heal wounds, improve competencies, develop deep intimacies and generate transpersonal experiences. Prerequisite: Week 1.

Outline: The Experience of Trance Camp has many dimensions. The course usually runs from 9 - 6 pm each day. Each day is filled with Dr. Gilligan's talks, group trances, Dr. Gilligan's work with volunteer clients, generative trance exercises with partners, and group discussions. The trances start out simple and short, and progressively deepen and extend into core pieces of transformational work. A group of experienced assistants is there to help as needed, and we all work to ensure that the group space is safe, intimate, and lots of fun.

Objective: In this workshop, Drs. John and Julie Gottman provide you with a research-based roadmap and training for helping couples to compassionately manage their conflicts, deepen their friendship and intimacy, and share their life purpose and dreams. When couples enter the therapy office, they sting with pain and despair. They look to the clinician to referee chronic conflicts, fix their partners, and rebuild burned bridges.

John and Julie Gottman have spent over 35 years researching over 3000 couples. Now after watching a couple for only 5 minutes, John Gottman can predict with 91% accuracy whether they will happily stay together.

Outline: This training will review Gottman's three decades of research on what makes marriages succeed or fail and teaches an approach that helps strengthen marriages. The Institute provides a wealth of information about couples dynamics, marital assessment, couples exercises and therapeutic interventions. All materials may be used in private practice clinical settings.

All participants receive a 300 page manual valued at $170 and full catering over 2 days. You will learn what the Gottman research tells us about couples:

How married couples really sustain their marriages—in contrast to common myths and misconceptions | How the quality of relationships affects the immune system, physical health and well being | How marital problems change over time, but never go away—even in happy couples | New marital assessment and diagnosis procedures that have been used to predict marital stability with 94% accuracy.

New diagnostic tools that accurately identify the specific problems in the dynamics of the marital relationship | Methods to help couples feel a renewed sense of caring and partnership through emotional connection | The key points in couples' interactions, when your interventions will be most effective |Therapeutic methods to help couples enhance friendship and shared meaning in their relationships |Specific and precise therapy techniques based on years of scientific analyses that help resolve solvable problems and dialogue on grid-locked ones.

FPCQ meet monthly. It is a great way to keep updated with industry developments, discuss issues affecting the counselling profession, network with other counsellors and have supervision for the cost of a gold coin.

Invitation to all Victoria ACA members to become a member of our Association

Benefits of FVC membership:

-PDP (Professional Development Programs)

-Supervision by ACA registered supervisors

-Networking with peers

-Workshops, conferences and seminars (at member's rates)

-Bi-Monthly e-Bulletin

-Professional recognition

-A voice and strength in advocacy

-Counsellor directory listing

-Advertising at reduced rates

-Monthly meetings

-Membership certificate

CLASSES OF MEMBERSHIP:

FVC membership consists of three levels: Fellowship, Full Member and Student Member.

Members meet the standards and criteria as laid down by the association for full and student membership and are currently financial members of the Australian Counselling Association prior to being eligible for FVC membership. All members subscribe to the objects, code of conduct and ethics of the ACA and FVC.

MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION:

Application for membership must be in writing, signed by the applicant on the prescribed application form available at www.fvc.asn.au. It must include details of the applicant’s supervisor, or if applying for student membership, details of the course (s) being undertaken and details of the approved training body.

Full membership: $50

Student: $40

Each member will receive a membership certificate, which should be displayed in a place of easy viewing and access by the public/clients when practicing as a counsellor with membership to the association.

Monthly meetings are held at three locations:

Melbourne Central, on the second Saturday 1:00pm to 3:30pm

Ferntree Gully, on the fourth Saturday 1:00pm to 3:30pm, and

Albury, on the first Monday 1:30pm to 4:00pm.

Maffra bi-monthly, on last Monday 9:30am to 12:30am

Cost: FVC Full members $5, student members $2, ACA visitors $20, ACA students $5. We look forward to sharing our journey with you.

The South Australian Professional Counselling Association holds regular meetings which all members are entitled to attend. Come along and contribute to SAPCA, the committee is always seeking members input.

Venue: These meetings are held at Level 10 GHD Building 68 Grenfell Street Adelaide

More and more Counsellors are gaining advanced specialist skills with a Vocational Graduate qualification. A vocational graduate qualification gives you advanced theoretical knowledge with an emphasis on practical application. It's time and cost effective, meaning you can gain a formal graduate qualification in 6 to 12 months in your specialist area.

Here's how a graduate qualification can advance your career:

-Develop a deeper understanding of your area of interest and achieve more optional outcomes with your clients.

-A graduate qualification will assist you move up the corporate ladder from practitioner to manager/supervisor.

-Make the shift from being a generalist practitioner to a specialist.

-Gain greater professional recognition from your peers.

-Increased client referrals from allied health professionals.

-Maximise job opportunities in your preferred speciality areas.

-Formalise years of specialist experience with a respected qualification.

To learn more about the institute, our Vocational Graduate courses and how to enrol, please visit www.aipc.net.au/vgd . Or alternatively, please call your nearest Institute branch on the Free Call numbers listed below.

Sydney: 1800 677 697

Melbourne: 1800 622 489

Perth: 1800 246 381

Brisbane: 1800 353 643

Adelaide: 1800 246 324

Regional NSW: 1800 625 329

Regional QLD: 1800 359 565

Gold Coast: 1800 625 359

NT/Tasmania: 1800 353 643

Access Over 150 OPD Hours For Less Than $1 Per Day

Meet your OPD requirements the most cost effective and hassle free way – with over 70 high quality online courses, endorsed by the ACA, APS, AASW and many others… Plus 30 specialty video workshops.

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The course provides the graduate with advanced specialised technical and theoretical knowledge and skills for professional or highly skilled supervision work in a complex and specialised field of counselling supervision at AQF level 8, and further learning.

Graduates at this level have autonomy, judgement and responsibility in often complex and unpredictable counselling supervision context that require self directed work and learning and within broad parameters to provide professional advice and functions.